Wednesday, April 15, 2015

We took a driving tour of spectacular Zaragosa Spain then took off north towards France, heading to Lourdes.

The Pyrenees Mountains separating Spain and France were stunning and beautiful – still covered with snow as we went through the waterfalls and rushing streams, tunnels and forests.

We arrived in the Lourdes with songs of praise and excitement. We had Mass in the crypt and then a wonderful dinner in our hotel which is the best hotel in all of Lourdes. Excited to take a walking tour tomorrow. More soon :-)

Here is Fr. Alfonso’s excellent homily introducing this Marian apparition and giving us a good sense of what happened here.

I was so delighted to receive this e-mail that I had to share it with everyone!

Hi Steve,

Just had to share this…I was visiting San Antonio this weekend and as I walked around the riverwalk section of town, a gentleman approached me with a gospel tract. When he asked, “Are you sure you are saved?”, I thought to myself, “What would Steve say?”

After thinking for a second, I smiled and told him, “Absolutely–I’m saved the bible way!” When he asked what I meant by my (your) response, the ensuing answer led to an hour-long conversation with me doing my best to give rock-solid (no pun intended) answers to each of his skeptical questions. I even raised some points for which he had no “packaged” answers.

This was the first time since my conversion to the Church that I’ve really engaged in apologetics and defended the faith adequately. What made it more interesting is that this guy is a fallen-away Catholic and an MD who has started a small church of his own (At one point I even suggested that he was, in a sense, a self-appointed pope!).

After we shook hands, I walked away and overheard him telling others on his mission team, “Wow, that was a very intellectual argument!” It turned out to be the highlight of my weekend. I am so grateful for all the work that you and other notable converts have done, through your books, CDs and videos, to get me to this point.